


Sweet Sixteen

by AzraelGFG



Series: Amor vincit Omnia [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Birthday, Bullying, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Joffrey is a dickhead as usuall, Sandor is only slightly older than sansa, next level asshole, potential sequel coming in the future, soothing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-27 07:02:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13243008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AzraelGFG/pseuds/AzraelGFG
Summary: Sansa always wanted to celebrate her 16th birthday in style, like all the famous girls in TV. It happens differently...





	Sweet Sixteen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mademoiselle_k](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mademoiselle_k/gifts).



> Happy Birthday @mademoiselle_k

_This should have been the best day of her life so far_ , Sansa thought sadly looking down into her lap. Most of her tears had dried by now and just the slight burning of here eyes were the last proof of her earlier crying. Her mascara had probably run down her face. She hadn’t had the heart yet to look in the mirror.

Sansa felt sad, mad and humiliated at the same time. She had run up into her room fighting away the tears, before she had shut her door close about an hour ago.

She heard Lady’s scratch on the door with her paws, to demand entry to see her master, but Sansa wasn’t in the mood to see anyone. Not even her friendly dog, who had been her loyal companion since Sansa’s family had found her and her siblings as pups in a cardboard box at a gas station on their trip to her Uncle Edmure, during the summer holidays a few years ago.

Not even Lady would be able to lift her mood right now.

Today was Sansa’s 16th birthday and she and her best friend Jeyne had planned her birthday for months, so everything would be perfect for her great day.

In reality Sansa had started to plan her birthday already a few years ago.

She had asked her parents to keep her 14th and 15th birthday small and modest and instead throw a large birthday party like the popular girls in TV did for their 16th birthday.

Her parents had agreed and indeed organized everything like Sansa wanted.

They had decorated the large garden of the Stark mansion and even erected a large projector screen, where pictures from the photo box had been supposed to be showed, during the party.

Sansa and Jeyne had invited all her friends from school. Since Sansa had been in a relationship with Joffrey Baratheon she became friends with basically everyone at the Kings Landing High.

Even after _Sansa_ had broken up with him, because he had cheated her with Margaery Tyrell, about three months after it had started, that fact hadn’t changed. Sansa was still popular in school and Jeyne had told that other girls had speculated that Harry, the heir to the Arryn Motorcycle Company, had thrown an eye on her and would soon ask her out.

Sansa’s heart had jumped like a rodeo horse, when Jeyne had told her. She had even imagined that Harry might would ask her out in a quiet moment of her party.

The number of guests quickly rose and Sansa already felt excitement just to think how awesome her party would be. Sansa biggest concern had been that Arya or one of her other siblings would spoil everything.

She had counted the days in excitement. And today had finally been the day.

When she come down to the kitchen all her siblings had awaited her singing Happy Birthday, before her parents and siblings had given her several presents.

The best present so far was the black cocktail dress her mother had gifted her.

Sansa had seen it several months ago on a shopping tour with her mom and Arya, when her little sister had needed new clothes for her next paintball season.

After that she had gotten a call from Jeyne’s mother. Her friend had caught the flu over night and couldn’t leave the bed. Jeyne then even had come to the phone and with weakly voice apologized to Sansa that she couldn’t come today, but that she would make up for it.

Sansa of course hadn’t been mad at her friend. She knew that Jeyne got sick easily and she wouldn’t let something she hadn’t control over spoil _her_ day.

Shortly after he aunt and uncle had called to wish her a happy birthday.

After that Sansa hadn’t been able to do anything but wait for her guests.

And she had waited. And waited. And waited.

It was Saturday and the party had been supposed to start at 1 p.m. At 2 p.m. she started to become restless.

At 3 p.m. she had gotten the call from Joffrey.

Sansa had frowned at first when she saw that Joffrey called, but it had quickly gotten clear what was going on.

“You really thought I would forget that you made me a fool for the whole school by breaking up with me? Let’s see who is the fool after today. Did you really think anybody besides your nerd friend liked you? They all just pretended to be your friends to show me how much they wanted to be _my_ friends.” Sansa had then heard laughing in the background and someone that sounded very similar to Harry, tell Joffrey to finally end the call. “Have fun at your _party_ ,” Joffrey added with a sarcastic tone and ended the call.

Sansa listened to the beeping of the ended call for a few seconds before she put down her phone.

Sansa had felt numb. It all had been a lie and every body else in school would just call it a prank.

When Sansa had then turned around after taking a breath Arya had stood behind her asking what had happened.

Sansa had given her a quick summary of what Joffrey had just told her. Sansa had then gone into the kitchen and when her mother had asked her if she was alright and if she had heard something when her friends would come.

Sansa then hadn’t been able to endure it anymore and had just shook her head before she had run up the stairs ignoring her fathers and mothers call and shut her door close.

After that she had cried sitting on her bed.

Sansa had clearly heard her fathers voice from the first floor. Arya had hopefully told their parents everything. Her father’s voice was interrupted by her mothers followed by Robb’s, who sounded angrier than Sansa had ever heard him before. Even more than the day that Theon had told him that had slept with Robbs first girlfriend Talissa by accident on the prom night.

Sansa never wanted to leave her room again.

The doorbell rung and Sansa glanced over to the alarm clock.

 _4 p.m., who can this be?_ Sansa asked herself, but didn’t made any attempts to go down. Whoever came probably wasn’t here for her anyway. She wished the day was already over.

Sansa sat down at her dressing table and looked at her in the mirror.

This should have been the best day of her life and now she was sitting in front of her mirror with puffy eyes and smeared mascara.

She heard someone walk up the stairs after hearing some people talk downstairs. From the sound she already knew that it was her mother.

Sansa starred into the mirror at the reflection of the door behind her and simply waited for her mother to knock.

Her mother knocked softly on the door twice.

“Come in,” Sansa said softly and her mother entered and closed the door behind herself.

“Ohh, my darling girl,” Her mother said and embraced Sansa.

“Did Arya tell you what is going on?” Sansa asked and hoped she wouldn’t have to explain to her mother herself.

“Yes, she did. Joffrey proved he is certainly Cersei’s son to do something as cruel as that,” her mother said in an empathic tone.

“This was supposed to be the best day you can imagine and now its ruined,” Sansa said sadly and hugged her mother tighter.

“I know it didn’t went like you expected, but it isn’t ruined. There is someone at the door for you,” her mother said and Sansa looked at her questioning.

“Who is it?” Sansa asked.

“You will have to come down to find out yourself,” her mother said warmly smiling heading for the door. “Your father just has a little chat with him at the door, so don’t let him wait long,” she added before she left.

 _Who could this be?_ Sansa asked herself while she quickly cleaned up the smeared mascara.

_Was there actually anyone who liked her, besides Jeyne?_

She hesitantly walked down the stairs and saw the huge shape of her classmate Sandor Clegane shaking hands with her father.

Sansa had never considered Sandor to be a close friend or even more that he actually liked her. From all people she had invited, Sandor had been the last she would have expected to see. He never bothered to show up to any social events and Sansa had also never before seen him at other birthday parties.

He was already eighteen and had to repeat this class for the third time. It wasn’t like Sandor was too lazy or too stupid to understand the topics in school. Sansa often thought that he just wasn’t confident enough about himself. After all the answers he gave when the teacher asked him were correct most of the time.

Sandor had been in the third grade when Sansa had just started school. At first, she had been scarred by him. After all the right side of his face had been scarred by an accident he refused to talk about. Over the years he had several reconstruction surgeries that had managed to hide most his former scars. Only if you looked closely you could still see some small scars.

They hadn’t spoken often in school, but he had helped her a few times when older students had tried to take away her stuff in school, especially Ramsay Bolton kept his distance since Sandor had told him he should never dare to harass Sansa again.

After that incident Sansa often felt his eyes on her back during classes. Every time she had looked she had only see him advert his eyes. Jeyne had said that Sandor probably had a crush on her, but Sansa had told her friend that she was wrong. After all he had been one of the best rugby player they had in their school team, until he injured his knee and why would he bother himself with a girl like her. Besides the few scars left on his face, he certainly could be considered handsome in his own way. Not like boyish handsome like Joffrey had been or the way Harry was, but definitely in an interesting way.

Her father nodded to Sandor and he turned around. He had trimmed his beard and combed his long black hair over the side of his face that had been damaged. He wore a dark grey polo shirt and some black jeans.

His mouth fell slightly agape seeing her walking down the stairs and Sansa felt her face heat up at seeing him being taken aback by het appearance.

“Hello little bir...Sansa...hello Sansa,” he stammered obviously nervous. He had started to call her little bird, because Sansa had been so nervous the first time he had spoken to her that she had babbled and stammered like a fool.

Sansa just wanted to welcome him when he held out a little box with a yellow tie.

“Happy birthday, Sansa,” he said and Sansa was taken aback by the fact that he really was here for her.

“Thank you so much Sandor,” she said taking the box. “Come in,” she added smiling taking his arm leading him to the garden.

“Where are the others?” he asked when they reached the garden.

“Nobody came. Everyone who promised to come, just said it because Joffrey wanted it. Making nobody come and only make everyone play that they like me is his way to take revenge on me for breaking up. Ohh and Jeyne is sick so that’s why she isn’t here,” she said as stoic as she could. “To be honest I am surprised to see you here. I have never seen you before at any party or prom at school.”

“Well,” he rasped. “You probably never have seen me before at any other party, because I have never been invited. You were the first to do. And regarding prom. I never had the chance to ask anyone to be accompany me. So that’s this. I just didn’t want to be the ugly fool that goes to the prom without partner.”

“Oh my god, that’s horrible Sandor,” Sansa said and felt stupid for assuming he was just antisocial.

“Not as horrible as to discover that everyone you thought to be your friends were just playing you by not coming to your birthday party,” he said emphatically and smiled sadly at her and Sansa laughed lightly.

“I guess you are right, but you came to my party. And now that all guests have arrived I guess we can start the party,” she said and took his hand.

“Would you like something to drink or some cake?” Sansa asked.

“Sure, sounds great.”

Her mother had bought a large lemon cream cake from Hotpie’s cake shop. They made the best cakes in the whole city and Sansa loved them since she was a child.

“Mom where are the plates?” Sansa asked putting Sandor’s present on the counter, getting a knife for the cake.

“Where they always are darling,” her mom called back.

Sansa got the plates from their usual place and started to cut the large cake.

He put one peace on each plate, before turning to Sandor.

“What would you like to drink? Lemonade? Coke? I guess we have beer too,” Sansa said a bit awkward.

“No beer for me. I got to drive later. Coke will be fine for me,” he said and Sansa got one from the fridge and one lemonade for her.

 _Interesting that he doesn’t drink if he has to drive_ , Sansa thought _. Joffrey never bothered himself with drinking at any given chance._

“Here you go,” she said handing Sandor his plate and cola. “Time to open your gift,” she added smiling.

“I hope you like it,” he said sounding a little unsecure.

They walked into the garden to a bench near the garden pond. As they sat down music started to play lightly from the boxes, Robb had set up all over the place and connected to her Ipod. Her older brother obviously had put the music on.

Sansa had just started to unwrap the box when Lady came up to make her presence known. Her dog curiously sniffed on Sandor and he scratched her behind her ears.

“Who are you?” he asked while Lady just enjoyed the scratches from this unknown guest.

“That’s my dog Lady,” Sansa said.

“A beautiful animal. I got a dog on my own. Stranger. He can be wild at times.”

“Really? Maybe we can walk them together some day,” Sansa said.

“Sure. I guess Stranger would like to have another dog to play with.”

Sansa opened the box and was taken aback by what she found inside.

Inside was a first edition of her favorite novel. Sansa hadn’t even expected that he had any idea that this was her favorite book.

“Do you like it?” he asked carefully.

“That’s the best gift I have ever gotten,” Sansa said excited. “How did you know this is my favorite novel of all time?”

“Remember when we had to present or favorite book at the English class? You mentioned that this was your favorite book, but you couldn’t present it at the time, because you had lost yours at vacation.”

“Ohh I remember. It was a stupid presentation to be honest nobody listened what anyone was saying, so it’s a very nice surprise that you listened at least.”

“I would listen to everything you have to say,” he said and Sansa felt herself smile up.

“I still basically don’t know anything about you Sandor. Its kind of strange considering we are in the same class.”

“I am afraid there is nothing interesting to tell about me.”

“I don’t believe you. Tell me about your family.”

“If you really want to hear about it. But I am afraid its not a pretty story and I don’t want to spoil your birthday,” he said.

“You cant spoil my birthday, because you already made it great by coming. Please I really want to know you.”

“Okay then,” he said and took a sip of his cola.

They ate their cake and drank the drinks, while Sandor started to tell her of his family.

Sansa had no idea he had a younger sister, who was in the same class as Bran. In many way Elynore reminded Sansa of Arya.

He continued to tell how his father had left his family with his elder brother Gregor because his mother wanted a divorce, after his older brother had smashed his face into a window with such a force, that it had scattered the glas, leaving him with cuts all over his right face.

Sansa was shocked how somebody could do something as cruel to his own brother, but Sandor told her he was kind of glad it happened, so his mother, sister and himself, were freed of the cruel brother and abusive father.

By the time he was done the smell from the barbecue, her father and brother had started came over to them.

“Hungry?” Sansa asked him with a smirk and the growling of his stomach was answer enough.

The food on the grill already spread its delicious smell all over the place.

Originally it had been planned that all kinds of stuff would be grilled for all the guests. Spareribs, hamburgers, steaks, sausages, chicken, baked potatoes. Her mother had even prepared several different salads.

Sansa felt bad for her mother. She had put so much effort into the food, but when she asked her mother, who had just put down one salad on the dinning table on the terrace, she said it was alright and that the food wouldn’t go to waste, since Arya’s paintball club had a celebration for the winning of the last season, so the salads and most meats would be eaten there.

At first Sansa wasn’t sure if it would be kind of boring to have barbecue dinner with her family, but it was pretty nice in the end. They had nice chat, during dinner and nobody mentioned todays happening, although Arya once mentioned that she wouldn’t mind to punch Joffrey in the face. Instead her parents and siblings were kind of curious about Sandor.

When he revealed that his little sister shared a class with Bran, Sansa’s mother became curious if she had already met Sandor’s mother during some school events.

It was revealed that they had indeed met once and briefly talked about there children. It had been around the time, Sandor had his last face surgery.

After dinner Sansa and Sandor went back to the bench at the pond. From there you had a wonderful place to see the sunset.

Sansa leaned her head against his shoulder and after a while he hesitantly put his arm around her shoulders. Sansa felt a strange excitement at that.

“You look stunning today, Sansa,” he said and Sansa felt heat redden up her cheeks.

“Thank you,” she said and looked at him. “You look nice too.”

They simply sat there for a while and watched the sun slowly fade away behind the tree line, when Sandor spoke up as a new song came up in the playlist.

 “Would you like to dance _with_ me?” he asked a little raspy, like his throat was dry.

“I would like to dance with _you_ very much, Sandor,” she said and took his hand.

They didn’t really dance in the classic way, but rather just moved to the music, while Sansa had flung her arms around his neck, but it was better than every dance she had before.

She had no idea for how long they danced, but they stopped when the sun was just about to disappear behind the horizon.

“Thank you, Sandor. That was wonderful,” she said a little dreamy.

“Your welcome, little bird.”

By now Sansa didn’t want this day to end that quick anymore. She wished that feeling of happiness to continue as long as possible even if she knew that he would probably have to go home soon.

After the sun went down they continued to talk sitting on the bench, while the moon slowly rose at the sky and the crickets started to chirp in the darkness of the upcoming night.

“I guess its time for me to go, little bird,” he said and sounded kind of sad that he had to go home.

“I know,” Sansa answered equally sad and they started to go back into the house to the main door.

Sansa’s father and Robb were sitting on the couch watching TV, while her mother was packing up the remaining food for Arya’s paintball club celebration tomorrow.

Arya and her other brothers were probably in their rooms.

Sandor opened the main door, but they both couldn’t find the right beginning for their goodbye.

“Thank you for the invitation, Sansa,” he said.

“Your welcome, but I am the one that really should be thanking you. You have turned the day I thought to be my worst into probably the best I’ve had so far.”

“I just want to see you happy, Sansa,” he said and got closer to her face and for a moment Sansa thought he intended to kiss her.

“I should go,” he rasped and she felt his breath on her lips. Sansa heart was beating like mad. She wouldn’t have minded to kiss him.

He had just stepped outside when Sansa grabbed his hand and he turned around with a questioning expression on his face.

“If you ever need some partner for prom night. You will only have to ask. Ill will gladly be your partner.”

Sandor smiled up.

“Good to know. If I manage to find the guts I’ll even ask you for more than just prom night,” he said in a soft tone and Sansa’s heart ran even faster than it had before.

“I look forward to it,” Sansa said smiling biting her lip lightly.

“Have a good night Sansa,” he said embracing her lightly.

“You too Sandor. And come home safely.”

“Thank you.”

Sansa watched him while he got into his car and only went back inside when his backlights had disappeared behind the corner.

Sansa closed the door felt herself smile brightly.

 _In the end they day had been perfect_ , she thought to herself, as she sat down next to her parents and older brother on the couch opening the book Sandor had gifted her.

_Absolutely perfect._

The End.


End file.
